Give It On Up To Omeletville: Album Sessions Day 10

Hey Soul Mates,
it was a long and productive day at the Lincoln Lounge. It was our last scheduled recording session for our album. We got to hear some preliminary mixes of a few things, including U Had The $, which is gonna take you back to 1982 in a good way. Adam Marsland has pulled out a few vintage machines to get some way-back sounds. Sucka is huge and Everything My Heart Desires (EMHD) also sounds spectacular. Though it currently features a Hammond organ, I'm lobbying for a piano part. Regardless, Adam has gotten his hands on a glockenspiel which will figure prominently on EMHD.

I had to redo the lead vocal for Fall Out. This time around I got a much livelier feel for the number and tore through it. Down By Love still presented its challenges, but we got through it adding lots of harmony and secondary vocal parts. Ladies favorite Done Lost My Mind was completed after Bryan and I did harmonies for the coda. I performed Doug's part, hope I did him justice in his stead. I also did a cool stack of vox on the bridge of Done Lost.

As you can tell, it's after 2 a.m. I was actually lapsing into sleep while doing multiple takes on the backing for Done Lost My Mind. I wasn't satisfied with my performance on that section, no duh, and we scrapped that part.

By midnight, we were all a little punchy. Bryan and I entertained Adam and Steve Refling with our imitation of our good mate, James "Biggie" Stewart from Scotland. Sadly, I cannot repeat the improvised dialogue here. But if you met James when he was here in LA last Summer, you won't have to stretch your imagination. James, we miss you!

Well, our next sessions at the Lincoln Lounge will be for mixing the first week of June. We have one off-site session for percussion and etc. for later this month. At that point all of the actual recording is finished. Then, we'll start leaking some snippets to you. I'll be blogging more in the meantime. We still have lots of homework to do with the mixes that we got this evening and more to come. Plenty of good listening.
Love, Power, Peace

All Tomorrow's Sessions

Hey Soul Mates,
I'm up a little late on the night before a session. In fact, tomorrow represents our last recording date for our new album. Originally, we were going to call it "A Talent For Loving," but some other names are coming to mind. I'll be heading in around 2 to record some vocal filigree. Bryan will get there in the evening to do his harmonies. Then we've got a weekend of mixing scheduled for the first week of June. Hold on, true believers!

Cheers to everyone who's been sending in their listening suggestions. This morning, though, I heard the new White Stripes single Icky Thump. It sounds nearly like Yes on crack. Ouch. Rocking the house. And in the lyric to beat, as I decipher it, Jack White channels Snoop Dogg:
"While Americans want nothing better to do,
Why don't you kick yourself out, you're an immigrant, too.
Who's using who, what should we do?
Well you can't be a pimp and a prostitute, too."

I can tell their new album is going to be as challenging and rewarding as the superb Get Behind Me, Satan. 2007. Already the best year in music in a decade! And one of my favorites from 2006, The Feeling's 12 Stops and Home finally got an American release.

OK, tonight on Bon Jovidol, we were subjected to the soul-free rock of the Idolers singing Bon Jovi. The best performer, hands down, was Blake Lewis, beat-boxing his way through You Give Love A Bad Name. A lackluster choice for a theme night. Nothing against Jon Bon Jovi or his band, but his songs are better recordings and don't make for good singing contest fodder. In fact, contrary to what Paula said, Jon looked mortified that Blake was going to inject some cultural relevance into the number. Where the hell is the Barry Gibb night mentioned at the top of the season? Or at least, "Judges' Choice" night.

I'll be checking in later today/or Thursday with the update from the Lincoln Lounge.
Love, Power, Peace

Monkey Business

Hey Soul Mates,
a revolutionary event has occurred in the UK regarding the Arctic Monkeys' new disc, Favourite Worst Nightmare (see my previous blog). Due to the way in which the new British charts are acknowledging Internet downloads (counting every track sold on an album towards album sales and individual sales), all 12 songs landed in the Top 200 singles chart in the UK, 3 in the Top 100! Of course, on the album chart they debuted at #1, but this is a paradigm shift. To my knowledge, never before has an act's entire record ruled the singles chart like this. Although, it's not the domination of the Beatles in 1964 or the Bee Gees in1978, where the relevant songs in the chart were legitimate singles, it is impressive nonetheless.
Love, Power, Peace

Sheffield's Own

Hey Soul Mates,
well, I just got shut out of buying tickets for the Arctic Monkeys' surprise gig at the Troubadour tonight. I was hoping to see them, because I believe they have just released the first Great Album of 2007. Their hype didn't snare me last year. Especially when we played their home turf, there was a lot of buzz. Yeah, I'd heard I Bet You Look Good... but wasn't wowed. Their new disc Favourite Worst Nightmare has bowled me for 6, as I learned from Bowieboy this week.

Track 5, Florescent Adolescent, may be the best thing I'll hear this year. And to write more about it would spoil the way I feel about it. The Wizard of Oz inspired Old Yellow Bricks features the lyric "Who wants to sleep in the city that never wakes up? Blinded by nostalgia." Wish I had written that. And I love the last stanza of Teddy Picker:
"Assuming that all things are equal
Who'd want to be men of the people
When there's people like you?"

It's always marvelous when artists as young as the Arctic Monkeys can create such sophisticated and lyrically ingenious pop tunes. Now I get why they are getting comparisons to the Beatles. They are NOT the Beatles, but there is much to love about the Monkeys. Imagine if Lennon had been into hip-hop and you get an idea. If they can keep their stuff together for a few more years, we'll look back at this moment as the coming of a legendary group.

Speaking of Bowieboy, I had a great week chauffeuring and playing tour guide for our soul mates from Sheffield. Thought that would give me good mojo to see Sheffield's Monkeys. The Smiths still brought good mojo along with my favourite flavour of Twining's and Lotus biscuits. Oi! I even took them to Amoeba to see L.A. very own Taj Mahal of Records. And Dodger Stadium, the other Taj Mahal in town. It's always refreshing to see your city through other eyes. The beauty, the madness, the traffic, the sunshine. Well, having had another taste of the North, I can't wait to get back to Yorkshire.

Here's yours truly decked out for a hot, sunny day in Los Angeles. We were outside of the real hospital used as the set for "Scrubs," which is down the street from my place. Photo by Bowieboy.


There is one other recent release that I give props to: Amy Winehouse's Back To Black. It's Motown, Wall Of Sound and Etta James fuelled by lots of alcohol, late nights and strife. It's what several Motown artists might have produced had they the chance to write their own material back in the '60s. Oddly, Winehouse is a petite but heavily tattooed, white, Jewish girl from England with a sultry voice and great tunes. Plus the arrangements and production take you straight to L.A. or Detroit 1965. It has to be heard to be believed. And then you have to see her elegantly wasted performances to get the whole artistic picture. Not oddly, Arctic Monkeys have a live cover version of Winehouse's new single You Know I'm No Good. The Brits are onto something...

To recap my favorite releases of the year so far:
1. Arctic Monkeys - Favorite Worst Nightmare
2. Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
3. Fall Out Boy - Infinity On High
4. Locksley - Don't Make Me Wait
5. Elliot Yamin - s/t
6. Katherine McPhee - s/t

Plus I'm really digging Kaiser Chiefs' single Ruby and 747's Rain Kiss. A really great start to 2007 musically. And you haven't even heard the new single from Rush Hour Soul, yet!
Love, Power, Peace